Boons

+ATK: Having the third-lowest Attack stat in the game, Henry desperately needs any possible Attack buff in order to increase his raw damage output. Although 26 base Attack with a boon is still relatively low, it is much more workable when accounting for team support.

+DEF: A Defense boon helps boost the power of Henry’s Bonfire/Ignis activation, which will often be Henry’s main source of damage; it also has the added bonus of building upon his already impressive physical bulk.

Neutral

HP: To avoid damaging Henry’s physical bulk, it is recommended to leave his HP untouched.

RES: Raising Henry’s Resistance is not a priority, but to avoid damaging any potential match-ups against mages, it is best to leave his Resistance alone and rely on team support to solidify such match-ups.

Banes

-SPD: Henry’s Speed stat is incredibly low and is rarely a factor in determining the outcomes of his match-ups, making it his ideal bane as lowering it brings no considerable change.

Although outshined offensively by every other red mage in the game, Henry can perform rather well when delegated to the role of an Enemy Phase tank. What truly allows him to shine is a very potent combination of Rauðrowl, Close Counter, and Quick Riposte, granting him the ability to put his physical bulk to use against melee opponents. However, in order for this build to reach maximum potency, Henry must be extremely reliant on team buffs/support.

For the purposes of this build, Henry’s most desirable IV is a Defense boon, bolstering his already solid physical bulk and gives more power to his Special. His bulk can be further amplified by the aforementioned Rauðrowl tome, giving him a +6 boost to all his stats when surrounded by three adjacent allies; these are also in-combat buffs, meaning that he can further abuse his teammates’ C slot to maximize his offensive effectiveness. This serves the purpose of patching up his offensive spread while also increasing his mixed bulk.

Bonfire or Ignis can be used interchangeably as his Special, with the key difference between the two being the time of their activation. Assuming that he is doubled, Bonfire will activate in each combat while Ignis will activate in every other. However, due to Henry’s naturally low damage output, Ignis will be the preferred option due to its considerably greater damage output increase.

Quick Riposte is a pivotal part of this build as it ensures that Henry doubles in the Enemy Phase, thus inflicting more damage while also charging his Special faster. Using it in his B slot allows for his seal to be occupied by either Close Def or Distant Def, though the choice of which is match-up dependent. On the other hand, using Quick Riposte as a seal allows him to make use of Guard, which lets him bait the prominent threat of Bold Fighter armors without worry of their Special activating.

As for Henry’s C slot, Atk Smoke is perfect for situations in which Henry has to bait multiple opponents at once, crippling any further enemy engagements. Otherwise, Henry’s C slot is flexible and can be used to fit the rest of his team’s needs.

One way to circumvent Henry’s horrid Attack stat is to rely on color advantage to be the main source of his damage output as opposed to relying entirely on his Special proc. This set, albeit old-fashioned, is tried-and-true, revolving around the common pairing of Rauðraven and Triangle Adept. Now a specialist, Henry can serve as a dedicated check against both green and colorless foes.

For his Special, Ignis and Bonfire are again great options with the choice between the two boiling down to whether one prefers greater damage output increase or shorter cooldown. Henry’s B slot is flexible but is best filled by a Breaker skill, as such skills will allow him to bypass his low Speed and specialize further. The choice of which one, however, depends on the type of unit that his team has the most trouble facing. Bowbreaker will often serve the purpose of making sure Henry does not get hit hard by Brave Lyns, especially those who run Brave Bow, while Axebreaker grants him an easier time in killing axe users. Henry’s native G Tomebreaker, while generally having less utility than the other listed options, is still a perfectly viable option and works great as a cheap alternative.

As for his seal, Distant Def gives Henry more ranged protection during the Enemy Phase and is imperative in solidifying Henry’s matchups against mages. Defense +3 is also a decent option on Henry as it builds upon his physical bulk while also strengthening Defense scaling Specials.

Introduction

Henry, Twisted Mind is an incredibly niche unit, possessing one of the most lopsided stat spreads in the game. Sporting horrid Attack and Speed, this red mage falls extremely flat offensively when compared to the rest of the red mages in the game. However, he does have a silver lining - his physical bulk. Tied only to Winter Tharja, Henry has an impressive 77 physical bulk at neutral, which opens him up to several choices for a weapon such as the above-listed Rauðrowl.

With such bulk, he is quite adept at dealing with physical attackers, but due to his stat spread, he can barely scratch opponents without the use of his Special. In addition, his stat spread shoehorns him into using an Enemy Phase build and limits his flexibility as a unit. As a result, Henry’s teammates are severely limited as well since their builds must revolve around supporting him and covering his weaknesses.

Despite his many shortcomings, Henry can prove to be a serviceable unit, finding a niche as a rather formidable Enemy Phase unit. But in order for him to reach this potential, Henry demands a high amount of investment in order to barely be comparable to other red mages. As such, unless one is willing to go to extreme lengths to build him, Henry is best off being used as a simple green and colorless counter, or as Skill Inheritance fodder for other units.

Strengths

High Physical Bulk

This is Henry’s most important strength and is one of the key differentiators between him and other red mages. With enough support, he can be an effective wall against physical opponents with few being able to dent the red mage.

High Availability

Henry is a unit readily available in the 3-4* pool, which means finding a perfect IV set for him is considerably easier than those at a higher rarity. This also makes merging him much easier, and as a unit with lackluster stats, these merges can often go a long way in improving his overall performance.

Weaknesses

Horrible Offensive Spread

Possessing the third lowest Attack stat in the game AND an incredibly low Speed stat to boot, Henry’s offensive spread leaves much to be desired. Without having his Special active or possessing Weapon Triangle advantage, Henry ends up becoming more of a hindrance to his team rather than an asset as he struggles to land lethal hits on almost every single unit currently in the game.

Requires Intensive Team Support

Aside from his own skills, Henry’s success is contingent on receiving a high amount of team support and is a requirement to do the slightest modicum of damage. This will often result in Henry being the core that the rest of his team revolves around and limits their own flexibility in terms of the roles they play aside from support/utility.

Team Options

Henry appreciates allies who can patch up his weak offensive spread and grant him additional survivability; this means both buffers and debuffers alike are fantastic allies. Strong greens who can cover Henry’s weakness against blues are also welcome. Even with his high physical bulk, speedy reds can be quite the issue for Henry, especially if they are running Specials with low cooldowns like Moonbow, so tanky blues who can quickly dispose of such units are also an option.

Buffers: Units like Marth, Ephraim, and Eirika who can provide Henry with the buffs he requires are crucial components to the team; having said units use Spurs or Drives is a particularly great strategy due to their ability to be stacked.

Debuffers: To increase Henry’s raw survivability, debuffers like Sothe, Soren, and Corrin (F) who can help compliment Henry’s defensive playstyle are also welcome allies.

Strong Greens: Regardless of how much support he is given, strong blues will always have favorable match-ups against Henry and kill him with ease. To provide Weapon Triangle coverage, strong greens like Myrrh, Winter Chrom, and Fae that offer great mixed bulk as well make great additions to the team.

Tanky Blues: Units like Fallen Hardin, Nowi, and Shiro are also options as allies for Henry, as they can easily tank and defeat red speedsters while also providing color coverage to the team.

Counters

Any capable blue unit should be able to smite the Plegian to oblivion with a single encounter. Magically tanky Enemy Phase blues are particularly effective and exploit Henry’s exceptionally poor Player Phase. Strong and fast reds can also be a counter to Henry and use his low Speed to their advantage; even with his strong defensive capabilities, these types of units can kill the mage with ease due to their superior offenses. That being said, debuffers also hurt him immensely as they essentially neutralize the team support given to him, and revert Henry back to his normal, subpar self.

Magically Tanky Blues: By merit of having color advantage, blues, in general, have an extremely easy time in combat against him. Those who specialize in the Enemy Phase are especially adept at killing him, exploiting his incredibly weak Player Phase to their advantage. Units like Fjorm, Micaiah, and Nowi are great examples of this and render Henry a non-issue.

Strong and Fast Reds: Heroes like Tiki (Young), Eirika (SM), and Ayra who are able to hit hard and consistently double him should have little to no issue in their match-ups against him.

Debuffers: As a unit, Henry is incredibly reliant on team support to function properly. As such, using debuffers, like Morgan (M), Jaffar, and Gaius, who counteract such support serve as great counters to him.

User Submitted Builds

Henry needs a lot of love and a lot of care to be made viable, but he is far from a terrible unit, if you build him right.

Henry needs an Attack boon the most. Defense is his best stat by far, and despite what some might tell you the extra damage by dealt by his special is not worth having three less Attack. His bane can either go to Speed or HP. Henry isn't going to be naturally doubling anyone and refining his weapon will get the HP back so either works just fine. Don't touch his Res if you can help it.

Henry has limited effective options in terms of weaponry. His native Raudrraven+ is a great tome for a budget build, but is poor for optimization as it cannot be refined. Raudrowl+ works well with him but requires his team to hug him as much as possible (Gronnowl+ works much better on his Halloween variant). Raudrblade can help boost his attack if you get him a buffer like Eirka or Ephraim, but again that is relying on the placement of units. Not to mention, the extra special charge isn't doing him any favors. Candelabra+ works great but is very limited. In my opinion, his best choice of weapon is Keen Raudrwolf+, which is easy enough to attain if you have the resources to promote Raigh and refine it after transferring to Henry. It doesn't require him to have allies adjacent to him, it can be refined, and it has good might, as well as giving him an advantage over cavalry units.

For refinement, I recommend Resistance if you're playing the long game, as I have. His defense is already very high, and with merges both will get higher. A Res bonus makes Henry into a great mixed tank, sporting an impressive 30+ in both defensive stats when Fury is applied, unmerged. However, if you're not going to buff him up in levels or Summoner support, it might be wise to increase his Defense even more. If Horse Emblem is giving you trouble, Nullify Cavalry has its uses.

As a mixed tank, Henry uses Reposition quite well. You're going to want him to be taking the brunt of most attacks to charge his special and to protect squishier units. Swap can work well too, as does Pivot if you like playing it a bit more risky.

Bonfire is a must for Henry. While Ignis lets him hit extensively hard, its charge time can be too long to prove useful. Bonfire adds a respectable 17 damage to his attacks with this build, unmerged. Luna can act as a decent substitute, having the same charge time with a good effect for someone with low attack such as Henry. However, those playing the long game definitely want Bonfire.

A skill should definitely be Fury 3. Henry needs all the buffs he can get, and Fury 3 increases his attack even more while making him even more tanky, with a bonus of patching his bad speed slightly. There really is no alternative. For those playing the long game, Close Counter should be substituted at around +2 or +3 with no Summoner Support, and around +5 with Summoner Support (the increased stats make Henry even tankier with Fury and thus more effective). However, due to the rarity of the skill, Fury 3 is still very viable.

B skill should be Swordbreaker 3. Henry's attack is too low to oneshot and his speed is too low to double naturally. Swordbreaker will allow Henry to double the biggest demographic of unit in the game, many of which come with very low Resistance and very high Speed, effectively countering Swordmasters. His native Green Tomebreaker can help deal with quick green mages like Nino and Soren, but ultimately limits his overall killing power. Quick Riposte can work for a more Enemy-Phase Henry, but I find that Swordbreaker still works better for that too.

C skill is very flexible. Tailor it to your team's needs. With that being said, if you're willing to fodder an Ishtar, Odd Attack Wave 3 helps Henry a lot.

Sacred Seal should be Attack +3. Henry needs the attack, enough said. Panic Ploy can work well too, provided you don't have an HP bane. Still, boosting his Attack is the crux of making Henry viable.

With this build, Henry can take out many key threats, even when unmerged. All Red, Green, and Colorless cavalry units fall rather easily Henry, most notably being able to oneshot Brave Lyn, Green Olwen, and can double both Reinhardts to death when initiating. Blue cavs are a bit trickier. Henry can still be defeated by Camus, Ephraim, L'arachel, and others relatively easily. He also takes out most swords very easily thanks to Swordbreaker. He fares well against archers (barring Magic Sponge Innes), less so against dagger users like Halloween Sakura, Sothe, and anyone with half-decent attack and a poison dagger. He does well against greens, being able to take most of them out. However, the more dangerous ones such as Valentine Hector, male Grima, etc can still beat him.

Henry's greatest threats are red and blue mages, which he is beat by in most cases. All three Tharjas, Julius, Celica, both Morgans, Lute, basically every other blue mage barring Reinhardt, Olwen, and Robin, etc.

In conclusion, while Henry won't be steamrolling the meta any time soon, he is certainly salvageable. He can take out the majority of units with this build, becoming a decent magic attacker with a bulky defensive spread. With merges, he becomes even stronger, and anyone thinking of merging and S Supporting Henry should definitely go for it in my opinion. He has been on my arena team for months now and has been a staple of it. While he may perform a bit better with the "optimal" Raudrowl+ build, this hinges on him being next to multiple allies. This build allows Henry to go out and wreck the enemy independently.

-Triangle Adept for dealing more demage against green and colorless units
-Green Tomebreaker for doubling green tomeusers
-Fortify Def to boost allies DEF
-Ignus to deal more demage with activation skill, he has very high DEF after all

Henry is a unique unit in a class of his own, being the one mage in heroes with the highest HP and Defense in the cast, having neutral 45/32/25 (45/35/25 with given IVs) bulk. Unfortunately, he pays for it in his 23 Atk and 22 Spd (19 with given IVs), and this build is made specifically to circumvent that and make him into an unholy abomination worthy of praise from Grima himself.

With his solid physical bulk of 45/32, Henry is actually able to use Close Counter to counterattack at melee range, allowing him to duel Swords, Axes and Bows alike. Quick Riposte is his ideal B slot due to his otherwise lackluster Atk and Speed, giving him more power during enemy phase.

The real kicker of this build lies within his new weapon - Rauorblade+, which helps to mitigate his low attack by instead increasing his damage with team buffs. For example, hone combination such as that from Eirika or Ephraim (+3 atk, +4 to another stat), even without rallies that gives him an extra 10 damage, and actually makes Henry have an impactful enemy phase due to his attacks now actually doing damage. For instance, assuming Ryoma does not run Moonbow, Henry can beat a +Atk unbuffed Fury Ryoma with this setup.

The rest of the build is more or less self-explanatory. Henry's Support Skill is flexible, and so is his C Slot, though his high HP makes Panic Ploy a very appealing option, increasing the amount of targets he can take on due to them having their offense handicapped as a result. To help utilize Panic Ploy, HP +5 is the ideal seal for him, and also helps with his bulk as a whole even without the need for Panic Ploy's activation. Bonfire is the preferred special to take advantage of Henry's 35 Def, and provide a bonus 17 damage on activation. Ignis can also be used, but given it's cooldown of 5 due to Rauorblade, Bonfire will see at least some use comparatively.

This Henry build absolutely requires support in the form of Hones and/or Fortifies, so a teammate like Eirika is essential for this build to perform optimally. Hone Speed shouldn't really be necessary for this Henry outside of giving a flat 4 damage, since Henry's speed is unsalvageable anyway.

Rauorowl is an interesting option and increases his Defenses to become an even sturdier wall, though Rauorblade can somewhat rectify his painfully low attack and therefore is more valuable as a whole, while not being reliant on every team member having fixed positioning to support Henry and still being effective.

Henry is underwhelming as a generalist, so solidifying his one niche as a bow waller is basically the best that can be done. Henry's uniquely extreme HP and Defense gives him the great privilege of being the one raven mage that can pull off this exact build and live all variants of cyl!Lyn without buffs on either side, and secure the kill with Bonfire or Ignis.

Panic Ploy is near essential for Henry to go toe-to-toe with green bladetomes and bow lyn in the case of horse emblem, allowing for safe debuffing and giving henry the capability to bait them and come out on top, while taking advantage of his uniquely high hp. Reciprocal Aid can be used to keep panic ploy running and allow Henry to bait and kill more than one enemy since builds such as qp moonbow cyl!lyn will leave him on very low HP as is. The Distant Def 3 seal will also give Henry an extra 6 defense against Brave Lyn, further ensuring his ability to tank her.